Footnotes
John Corrill, A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints, microfilm (New Haven, CT: Research Publications, 1967).
Needle holes along the center folds suggest that the CHL copy of the booklet was once bound with other similar-size works. The first page of the booklet bears the faded and now faint pencil notation “No 2.” on the upper right corner, a possible indication of the booklet’s arrangement in a collection of tracts. The first page of the booklet also bears a handwritten “20” in ink below the title. A photocopy made in 1971 or earlier shows that the CHL copy was not intact at that time. The copy at CHL is currently sewn through a new set of holes in the center folds. (Corrill, Brief History, photocopy, ca. 1971, CHL.)
Corrill, John. A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints. . . . Photocopy, ca. 1971. CHL.
A circa 1881–1884 inventory of printed works at the Church Historian’s Office includes Corrill’s booklet. The copy held at CHL bears the extremely faded inscription “Historian’s Office” and includes purple Historian’s Office stamps, which were in use as early as the late nineteenth century. A circa 1971 photocopy shows a “Historian’s Office Library” adhesive label (since removed) on page 2 of the CHL copy. These archival records and marks indicate continuous church custody since the early 1880s. (“Church Works, Periodicals, and Pamphlets, Alphabetically Arranged,” 22, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; Corrill, Brief History, photocopy, ca. 1971, CHL.)
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Corrill, John. A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints. . . . Photocopy, ca. 1971. CHL.
Footnotes
Minute Book 2, 10 Mar. and 6 Apr. 1838.
Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.
JS and Sidney Rigdon, Far West, MO, to John Whitmer, 9 Apr. 1838.
JSP, J1 / Jessee, Dean C., Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds. Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839. Vol. 1 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008.
JS, Journal, 27 Apr. and 30 Apr.–4 May 1838. The “History of Joseph Smith,” was published serially in the Times and Seasons from 15 March 1842 to 15 February 1846. (See “Joseph Smith’s Historical Enterprise;” and Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 449–450, 462.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.
Minute Book 2, 3 June 1831.
Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.
Oliver Cowdery, Independence, MO, to JS, Kirtland, OH, 28 Jan. 1832, JS Collection, CHL.
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.
See Minute Book 2, 2 Aug. 1831; 13 July 1832; 15 Nov. 1836; 7 Apr., 11 June, and 1 Aug. 1837; and 24 Feb. 1838.
Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.
Whitmer, History, 44.
Whitmer, History / Whitmer, John. “The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment,” ca. 1838–1847. CCLA. Available at josephsmithpapers.org.
JS to John Corrill, Blessing, 22 Sept. 1835, in Patriarchal Blessings, 1:14.
Patriarchal Blessings, 1833–. CHL. CR 500 2.
JS, Journal, 4 Oct. 1835.
JS, Journal, 15 Jan. 1836. Little is known about Corrill’s involvement in architecture or construction, but Truman Angell called Corrill the “leading mechanic” for the Kirtland temple. The inventory of his personal property at the time of Corrill’s death listed tools, instruments, and architectural books that could have been useful to him in such endeavors. (Angell, Autobiography, 15; “A Bill of the Widows Dowery of John Corrill Dec’d,” 10 Mar. 1843, Adams Co., IL, Estate Records, ca. 1832–1938, box 287, microfilm 933,951, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
Angell, Truman O. Autobiography, 1884. CHL. MS 12334. Also available in Archie Leon Brown and Charlene L. Hathaway, 141 Years of Mormon Heritage: Rawsons, Browns, Angells—Pioneers (Oakland, CA: By the authors, 1973), 119–135.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, p. 11, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri [1838–1839], 2.
Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Minute Book 2, 1 Aug. and 22 May 1837. JS’s revelations assigned supervision of the communal storehouse to the bishop and his counselors. (See Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831, in Doctrine and Covenants 13:10, 1835 ed. [D&C 42:34]; and Revelation, 20 May 1831, in Doctrine and Covenants 23:4, 1835 ed. [D&C 51:13].)
Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.
Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).
Corrill, Brief History, 25.
JS, Journal, 31 Aug. 1838; compare Oliver Cowdery’s statements in connection with Cowdery’s own 12 April 1838 excommunication, as recorded in Minute Book 2, 12 Apr. 1838; see also JS, Journal, 12 Apr. 1838.
Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.
Corrill, Brief History, 37.
JS, Independence, MO, to Emma Smith, Far West, MO, 4 Nov. 1838, JS Materials, CCLA.
Smith, Joseph. Materials, 1832–1844, 1883. CCLA.
John Corrill, Testimony, Richmond, MO, Nov. 1838, State of Missouri v. JS et al. for Treason and Other Crimes [Mo. 5th Cir. Ct. 1838], in State of Missouri, “Evidence.”
Missouri, State of. “Evidence.” Hearing Record, Richmond, MO, 12–29 Nov. 1838, State of Missouri v. Joseph Smith et al. for Treason and Other Crimes (Mo. 5th Cir. Ct. 1838). Eugene Morrow Violette Collection, 1806–1921, Western Historical Manuscript Collection. University of Missouri and State Historical Society of Missouri, Ellis Library, University of Missouri, Columbia.
“Extracts of the Minutes of Conferences,” Times and Seasons, 1 Nov. 1839, 1:15.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Corrill, Brief History, 44; see also “Letter from the Editor,” Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 24 Dec. 1838, [2]; Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri 19 Dec. 1838, 128; Edward Partridge et al., “Copy of a Memorial to the Legislature of Missouri,” in Greene, Facts Relative to the Expulsion, 10–16.)
Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1919.
Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.
“Letter from the Editor,” Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 25 Jan. 1839, [2]; see also Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, 19 Jan. 1839, 254–255.
Missouri Republican. St. Louis. 1822–1919.
Journal, of the House of Representatives, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, on Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Corrill, Brief History, 28.
Marsh abandoned his office by 24 October, the date of a statement he swore in Richmond, Missouri, against JS and the Mormons. Marsh may have left Far West by 20 October. Corrill later covered Marsh’s departure in chapter 22 of his history. (Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde, Affidavit, Richmond, MO, 24 Oct. 1838, Mormon War Papers, MSA; Rockwood, Journal, 21 Oct. 1838; Corrill, Brief History, 39.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Rockwood, Albert Perry. Journal Entries, Oct. 1838–Jan. 1839. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2606.
“Proceedings of Meeting No 1 Jany 26th 1839,” Far West Committee, Minutes, CHL. However, since it appears Corrill did not return to Far West after traveling to Jefferson City for the legislative session, word of the Saints’ decision to evacuate may not have reached him until later. By mid-February the Saints were packing and leaving en masse, and by the end of April they had resettled in Illinois. (See Gentry, “Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri,” chap. 14, esp. pp. 422–425.)
Far West Committee. Minutes, Jan.–Apr. 1839. CHL. MS 2564.
Gentry, Leland Homer. “A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri from 1836 to 1839.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1965. Also available as A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri from 1836 to 1839, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
The copyright application included a printed copy of the preliminary title page. Although some formatting changes were made to the title page before final printing, the title itself remained the same, indicating that by the time Corrill applied for copyright, his manuscript had progressed to the point that he could provide a title that described in detail the structure of the book. (See Corrill, Brief History, [4].)
The title page of the printed work does not list the printer, but a letter dated 21 April 1839, which discusses details of printing the work, is addressed to Thomas Watson & Son. Thomas Watson and his son John H. Watson owned the Missouri Argus newspaper in St. Louis from September 1837 to November 1839. (John Corrill, Springfield, IL, to Thomas and [John H.] Watson, St. Louis, MO, 21 Apr. 1839, John Fletcher Darby, Papers, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis; Abel Rathbone Corbin, “To the Patrons of the Missouri Argus,” Missouri Argus [St. Louis], 27 Sept. 1837, [1]; Thomas and John H. Watson, “To the Patrons of the Missouri Argus,” Missouri Argus, 22 Nov. 1839, [2].)
Corrill, John. Letter, Springfield, IL, to Thomas Watson and [John H.] Watson, St. Louis, MO, 21 Apr. 1839. John Fletcher Darby, Papers, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, MO.
Missouri Argus. St. Louis. 1835–1841.
The manuscript came into the possession of John Fletcher Darby, who served during the same term as Corrill in the Missouri legislature. Darby was mayor of St. Louis for four terms and later represented Missouri as a member of Congress. (Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, 3; Darby, Personal Recollections, 181, 202, 277, 450.)
Journal, of the Senate, of the State of Missouri, at the First Session of the Tenth General Assembly, Begun and Held at the City of Jefferson, On Monday, the Nineteenth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight. Jefferson City, MO: Calvin Gunn, 1839.
Darby, John Fletcher Personal Recollections of Many Prominent People Whom I Have Known, and of Events—Especially of those Relating to the History of St. Louis—During the First Half of the Present Century. St. Louis: G. I. Jones and Company, 1880.
Of the ninety-two pages of Corrill’s manuscript, pages 1–19, 24, and 36 are missing. Corrill wrote only on the recto side of each leaf, leaving the versos blank.
Up through chapter 14, the existing manuscript was written with chapter headings and space for chapter summaries, while chapters 15–27 (with the exception of chapter 26) were written without chapter breaks or space for summaries. In this later part of the manuscript, the pages were cut at the point where a new chapter was to begin, and a chapter heading and summary were pasted to the manuscript on a separate slip of paper. Text lost in the cutting was recopied on the slip of paper. Because the earlier portion of the text was created in anticipation of chapter headings, it is possible that the earlier portion of the manuscript is a later copy made after chapter breaks were introduced in the later portion of the manuscript.
J. Corrill to T. and [J. H.] Watson, 21 Apr. 1839.
Corrill, John. Letter, Springfield, IL, to Thomas Watson and [John H.] Watson, St. Louis, MO, 21 Apr. 1839. John Fletcher Darby, Papers, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, MO.
The printers planned Corrill’s history to be a forty-eight-page booklet, printed on three sheets. Leaving the front matter to be printed last, they began numbering chapter 1 with page 7, presumably reserving an eight-page gathering for front matter, two pages of which would contain an unnumbered advertisement or half title. Appending Matthew 24 added text the publishers had not planned space for, a situation which would normally have forced them to add an extra gathering at the back of the book. Rather than doing so, they shortened the front matter from eight pages to four. As a result, page 7 at the start of chapter 1 became a misnumbering. In the end, the body of the history ran three and a half pages beyond its allotted forty pages.
The broadside, which is undated and carries no indication of the publisher, is believed to have been printed and circulated in Kirtland. (Extract from the New Translation of the Bible [Kirtland, OH]: [ca. 1835?]; see also Durham, “History of Joseph Smith’s Revision of the Bible,” 85–96; and Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:60–61.)
Durham, Reed C. “A History of Joseph Smith’s Revision of the Bible.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1965.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
J. Corrill to T. and [J. H.] Watson, 21 Apr. 1839.
Corrill, John. Letter, Springfield, IL, to Thomas Watson and [John H.] Watson, St. Louis, MO, 21 Apr. 1839. John Fletcher Darby, Papers, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, MO.
“A New Verdict,” Missouri Argus, (St. Louis), 5 July 1839, [2].
Missouri Argus. St. Louis. 1835–1841.
J. Corrill to T. and [J. H.] Watson, 21 Apr. 1839.
Corrill, John. Letter, Springfield, IL, to Thomas Watson and [John H.] Watson, St. Louis, MO, 21 Apr. 1839. John Fletcher Darby, Papers, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, MO.
“A Bill of the Widows Dowery of John Corrill Dec’d,” 10 Mar. 1843, Adams Co., IL, Estate Records, ca. 1832–1938, box 287, microfilm 933,951, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Corrill moved to Quincy by January 1840. There he submitted a petition to the United States Senate and House of Representatives similar to those written by hundreds of Latter-day Saints at that time, seeking redress from the federal government for the losses and hardships to which they had been subjected in Missouri. On his own behalf and that of the Saints with whom he was no longer numbered, he requested a congressional investigation and asked that Congress “restore . . . all their rights of Citizenship, remunerate their losses and properly chastise the guilty.” Corrill visited Nauvoo in March 1841 representing some of the Saints’ creditors. He met with JS and attempted to collect on outstanding debts but later counseled those he represented that the dispossessed Saints were still poor and that JS was hostile toward attempts to collect debts incurred in Missouri. (John Corrill, Affidavit, Quincy, IL, 9 Jan. 1840, photocopy, Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, CHL; John Corrill, Quincy, IL, to Edward M. Samuel and Michael Arthur, Liberty, MO, 21 Mar. 1841, enclosed in Edward M. Samuel and Michael Arthur, Liberty, MO, to Thomas Reynolds, Jefferson City, MO, 5 Apr. 1841, Thomas Reynolds, Office of the Governor, MSA.)
Material Relating to Mormon Expulsion from Missouri, 1839–1843. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2145.
Thomas Reynolds. Records, 1840–1841. Office of the Governor. MSA.
Adams Co., IL, Probate Letters of Administration, 1826–1849, vol. C, 162, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. The weekly paper advertised the book in all but one issue from 15 June 1844 until its final issue, 24 May 1845.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
The Prophet. New York City, NY. May 1844–Dec. 1845.
Thomas Jennings, a militia officer from Livingston County, led a force of two to three hundred mounted men, most of them from Livingston County but also some from Daviess, Caldwell, and Carroll counties. There is no evidence that the attack was in response to orders from any higher military authority. (Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 266–267.)
Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).
Corrill’s dating is inaccurate. The Saints at Far West heard about the approaching army on Monday, 29 October 1838, the same day militia forces under the command of Samuel D. Lucas and David R. Atchison departed from the vicinity of Richmond, Ray County. (Brigadier General Alexander Doniphan served under Atchison’s command at the time.) That night the militia encamped sixteen miles from Far West at “Linville’s Creek,” apparently a tributary of Crooked River. (Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, pp. 102–103, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; Samuel D. Lucas, “near Far West,” to Lilburn W. Boggs, 2 Nov. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.)
Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Peck wrote that his and Corrill’s all-day efforts to meet with the militia took place Tuesday, 30 October. (Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, p. 103, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.)
Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Samuel D. Lucas and David R. Atchison rendezvoused at Log Creek with Doniphan and his troops Tuesday morning, 30 October. In response to orders from Governor Lilburn W. Boggs that arrived at this time, Atchison left his troops the same day and returned to Liberty, Clay County. (Samuel D. Lucas, “near Far West,” to Lilburn W. Boggs, 2 Nov. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
Lucas reported that he was in command of a combined force of about eighteen hundred troops at this time. (Samuel D. Lucas, “near Far West,” MO, to Lilburn W. Boggs, 2 Nov. 1838, copy, Mormon War Papers, MSA.)
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
That is, on the south side of Far West.
According to Peck, the Mormon delegation also included William W. Phelps, John Cleminson, and Seymour Brunson. (Reed Peck, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839, pp. 108–109, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.)
Peck, Reed. Letter, Quincy, IL, to “Dear Friends,” 18 Sept. 1839. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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